Google 'GDrive' becomes a reality

Google's often-rumoured, often-dismissed-as-never-going-to-happen GDrive -- a Google cloud service that lets you store any computer file online -- has finally become a reality. And it's called Google Docs.

Yes, Google Docs, the product with a number of birthdays already in its personal history. But Google has finally announced it is upgrading the Docs service to allow its users to upload files of any type to it, from .aac to .zip. Probably not .exe though, as they have a tendency to be naughty.

The service isn't without a more pressing limitation, though: capacity. You'll get 1GB of free space to store files up to 250MB in size. Additional space will cost extra. Odd indeed, considering Google's email service already provides 7GB of space for no cost.

But it's a start. And the ability to upload and then share such large files with friends and family certainly elevates its functionality above Gmail, which limits the size of files uploaded and sent to 25MB.

Whether this is the start of a more impressive cloud storage product from Google is open for debate. It certainly wouldn't be unfair to assume it was, with Google's Chrome OS around the corner.

But simple file storage is something other companies have been doing a lot better, for a lot longer. A worthy mention is Dropbox, which offers 3GB of storage, not to mention instant synchronisation of all your files across all of your PCs, Macs and iPhones, for no charge.

Google says the file-storage features of Google Docs will be rolled out over the next few weeks, so look for a notification when you sign into it. And look out for your nearest Dropbox employee, too. You'll recognise them by the worried look on their faces.